A cease-fire between Israel and Palestinian militants based in the Gaza Strip appeared be holding hold after Israeli forces and the Islamic Jihad group attacked each other overnight.

Palestinians fired 10 rockets into Israel and Israeli aircraft targeted six militant sites in Gaza, the Israeli military said.

The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a small militant group, said one of its fighters was killed and another wounded in an Israeli air strike, raising to 10 the number of Palestinians killed in a sharp escalation of violence that began on October 29.

Standing with her children near one of the Israeli strikes sites in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis on October 30, Nasra Ayad condemned the violence.

"We were afraid all night, the children were screaming and did not sleep," she said. "We were trying to calm them. Then we heard three air strikes."

In Israel, Mark Regev, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu gave caution over the cease-fire.

"Yesterday the Israeli Defence Forces acted against the launching of rockets by terrorists in Gaza," Regev said. "They are trying to kill our people. If the need arises we will act decisively and firmly to protect our people."

The violence followed an Egypt-brokered prisoner swap this month between Israel and Gaza's ruling Islamist Hamas group.